Comments on Profile Post by Lyander

It's a funny question, because running MJ3 around the clock at 50W probably costs ~$100 a year in LA. Tubes suddenly don't look so bad.

@roshambo123 haha, I did think that the specific amps in question would be a massive factor too, yes. The 6W that the Magnis consume is a *bit* less painful than the 50W the Mjolnir is rated for. $100 per year doesn't sound like a lot to me, but then again electricity is a monopoly in my country and rates are just terrible.

And I run Yggdrasil full time also which is another 45W. So probably $200 per year, which is easily a set or two of good tubes.

I had the Pi baking (sorry for the pun) for 3-4 weeks before. I recently had it off because I should set an example about conserving where I can. DACs exempted.

@roshambo123 you’re leaving tubes on continuously?!

I tend to turn it on in the morning and turn off at night. If it's the winter time I don't really worry about waste heat as I have electric radiators so I might leave it on overnight in that case

@joch No, I meant the justification for SS being cheaper than tubes doesn't hold up as neatly if you leave the SS amp on 24/7 as the power costs start to look as expensive as buying tubes. It looks even worse when you look at also leaving Yggdrasil on 24/7, although you'd ostensibly still do that with any amp so it's moot

Thing is, tubes are a finite resource and the ones that I like with the MCTH are all NOS models that are growing far scarcer by the day. I COULD have aligned myself with that argument, but with how prospects for actually-good new production tubes are pretty low and the cost of tubes only ever being on an upwards trajectory... I think it makes sense to stick with SS and have them ever-ready.

That said, I do occasionally worry for component longevity when I forget to turn the amp off for a couple days

There are still some decent Soviet bloc era tubes that are *relatively* affordable. You just have to get over the fractionally better unobtainable and probably seen better days heirloom stuff, and just enjoy what you can afford.

Haha, yeah no a lot of the tubes I think that I'm inclined to like are relatively scarce at this point, ergo my being more than content to stick with SS for the forseeable future and only occasionally bust out the hybrid for when I want to really sink into something.

My Jot2 stays on forever. When I was rocking the CFA3... Just couldn't stand the heat.

FWIW, my piety/modded MMB1 combo runs 24/7 and so do my non-tube dacs. Tube components only get turned on if I'm going to use them...

I'm mainly worried about the caps or any of the other components being worn out before their time. I really don't relish the idea of cycling gear, I've already sorta got an idea of where I want my system to be and am just trying to save up until I can GTFO and never login here again (kidding, kidding).

Unless your amp runs super toasty, most electrolytics will run more than a decade. Unless they're extra crappy, that is. Most will bulge up and you'll start hearing noise at 2x the AC frequency of your mains. Then it's time to swap the suckers out.

We all have our favourite tubes but theres no point of going for them usually. I am content with 3rd or 4th best. Buy 3 or 4 and you will be golden for more than 20y.

The only capacitors you need to worry about are electrolytics which are generally only in the PSU section. Usually pretty cheap and you will always be able to find an equivalent in the future.